BILLUND, Denmark & BOSTON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--LEGO® Education announced today new resources designed for teachers and
students to explore coding -- including free lesson plans, online
courses for teachers and an invitation to all schools and after-school
programs to participate in the new FIRST® LEGO League and FIRST®
LEGO League Jr. Challenge season.

“The job market for careers requiring coding skills is growing faster
than nearly any other sector, yet a majority of students today aren’t
given the opportunity to learn computer programming,” said Esben Stærk
Jørgensen, president of LEGO Education. “At LEGO Education, we’re
focused on sparking students’ curiosity in coding, and across all STEM
subjects, and then nurturing and sustaining that interest throughout
their education by delivering playful learning experiences that bring
subjects to life in the classroom and make learning fun and impactful.
Fostering these important skills among today’s youth will teach our
leaders of tomorrow that anyone can code and release their potential to
shape their own future.”

Free LEGO Education lesson plans ready to use in the classroom

Teachers can now freely access a wide range of lesson plans to help
spark curiosity, engagement and collaboration using LEGO bricks and LEGO
Education solutions in their classroom. LEGO
Education lesson plans, created by and for teachers, are filtered by
duration, difficulty level, subject, grade level and product. More
lesson plans will be added this school year, as well as increased
workflow interoperability with leading digital learning platforms. LEGO
Education lesson plans are available at LEGOeducation.com/lessons.

Middle school students can now take advantage of LEGO
MINDSTORMS® Education EV3’s integration into Apple’s Swift
Playgrounds for iPad to combine physical and digital learning
through the LEGO Education playful learning system. Today, teachers
using LEGO MINDSTORMS Education EV3 in their classrooms can also use the
new EV3 Animal Rescue Book, a lesson plan designed to teach how to code
MINDSTORMS creations with real Swift code. The EV3 Animal Rescue Book
engages and motivates students to solve a real-world problem as they
help an injured robotic turtle move and interact with its surroundings.
Download the free LEGO MINDSTORMS Education EV3 Teacher’s
Guide iBook.

"I am thrilled to be bringing science, coding, and robotics to students
in my 8th grade classes this year with the use of LEGO MINDSTORMS and
Swift Playgrounds on iPad,” said Leah LaCrosse, Apple Distinguished
Educator. “The unique mix of technology, science and creativity really
gives me the ability to engage my students and helps make our learning
come alive!"

Training and development courses help teachers bring playful learning
experiences into their classrooms

Through the LEGO
Education Academy, free online learning courses are available for
some LEGO Education solutions and are designed to help teachers enhance
the student experience and learning effectiveness while using LEGO
Education solutions. Today, LEGO Education announced that a selection of
these courses are now available on the Microsoft
Educator Community. The Microsoft
Educator Community is an online community where educators can
connect and collaborate, find training and lessons, take their classes
on virtual field trips, and earn badges and certificates on a
personalized hub created for educators by educators.

Teachers can now access courses and earn badges for LEGO
MINDSTORMS Education EV3. These self-paced courses take teachers
from beginner to classroom-ready in successfully integrating LEGO
Education solutions into existing STEM curriculum and daily lesson
planning. Explore the three available courses in the Microsoft Educator
Community – Getting
Started, Programming
and In
the Classroom.

Also starting today, LEGO MINDSTORMS Education EV3 is available on
Windows 10 to complete the full Windows portfolio. All LEGO Education
solutions are available on the leading operating systems – Android,
Chrome, iOS, Mac OS, and Windows.

FIRST LEGO League and FIRST LEGO League Jr. Challenge
inspire interest and participation in science and technology

LEGO Education and FIRST
(For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology), an
international, K-12 not-for-profit organization founded to inspire young
people’s interest and participation in science and technology, announced
that the 2017-2018 FIRST
LEGO League and FIRST
LEGO League Jr. seasons task students to explore the human water
cycle. Registration for both programs is now open through www.firstinspires.org.

"Many things have changed in my teaching career, but one thing that's
been consistent is the excitement a new FIRST LEGO League season and
challenge brings,” said Ian Chow-Miller, teacher and FIRST LEGO
League coach. “Entering my fourteenth year as a coach I have not been
let down by the creativity of the challenges, the innovation of the
projects, and the emphasis on teamwork and cooperation with other teams.
At its very core FIRST LEGO League works to improve engineering
by allowing young scientists, mathematicians, builders and programmers
to become their very best."

Each year, FIRST LEGO League Jr. presents a new and exciting
challenge to ignite creativity in young children. This year, while
exploring the real-world theme of how water is used by humans, teams
will use LEGO
Education WeDo 2.0 to build and program a model that moves, learning
basic engineering and programming concepts. Teams operate under a
signature set of Core
Values, which emphasize collaboration, discovery and respect.

The 2017-2018
AQUA ADVENTURE Challenge will reach over 65,000 children, ages 6-10
from 43 countries. New this year is an exclusive LEGO Education Inspire
Set containing 700+ LEGO® bricks and elements teams can use to construct
their team model. This set will also include a yearly model – a water
pump for this season – that serves as a starting point for teams.

In FIRST LEGO League 2017-2018
HYDRO DYNAMICSSM Challenge, more than 235,000 children,
ages 9 to 16*, from nearly 90 countries are challenged to learn all
about how we find, transport, use, and/or dispose of water, and propose
solutions for any issues they identify. They will present their findings
through a research Project presentation and compete in a Robot Game
using the MINDSTORMS EV3 and theme-based LEGO models representing
missions.

*ages vary by country

About LEGO® Education

LEGO
Education offers playful learning experiences and teaching solutions
based on the LEGO system of bricks, curriculum-relevant material, and
physical and digital resources to preschool, elementary, middle school
and after school. In partnership with educators for more than 35 years,
we support teaching in an inspiring, engaging and effective way. Our
solutions enable every student to succeed by encouraging them to become
active, collaborative learners, build skills for future challenges, and
establish a positive mindset toward learning. Find out more at LEGOeducation.com.